Cloverfield

All over the Internet people are making guesses as to what the thing… creature… monster could be in the JJ Abrams film lacking a title.

A movie trailer was shown to millions of people that went to see Transformers this past summer at the theater. The trailer’s lack of information simply ended with the date 1-18-08.

This triggered a frenzy of eager moviegoers to investigate what this film is called and what it’s about. Initially their search only turned up the name Cloverfield.

Producer JJ Abrams (of TV show Lost) continued to generate even more interest by announcing that the film has no name and that only tiny bits of info will be released to the public in the coming months. To add to the mystery the whole production is under tight wraps. No one is talking. No one is even leaking to industry magazines like Variety.

The most the public has received is a trailer with a monster or thing that can’t be seen, and a small plot outline (a logline really) about something destroying New York as shown from a group of friends POV (point of view).

From the trailer we see video POV footage of a going away party interrupted by the unearthly roar as the ground trembles, and the lights flicker. When the guests (still shot at the camera man’s POV) venture outside you see things erupting in fire from a distance and balls of flame shooting at them like comets. The trailer ends with them running from the statue of liberty’s head as it rolls down the street.

All over the internet people have turned into private investigator’s coming up with their theories as to what or who this thing is. On YouTube alone I have seen people that say it’s:

- The Power Rangers, because one of the (hidden)images from the film looks like one of their rivals.

- Godzilla part 2 trying to make up for the first film's horrible flop. The name being unlisted until they get the copyright back later this year.

- Zilla changed from Godzilla because they did not retain the copyright.

- A giant lizard because of the music playing in the trailer is by a rock group whose song lyrics talk of a clover in a field, and their album cover has the lizard as being, sent from a goddess to destroy the earth.

- A giant mutated whale due to nuclear waste from the atomic bomb.

- Evil gods and/or fallen angels coming to destroy the world like in ancient mythology.

Now what it looks like I can’t tell you. I really don’t know. But I can tell you what Abrams stated at a recent conference. He said he always wanted to make a really great monster movie.

On a recent trip to Japan he and his son entered some toy stores, and all he saw was Godzilla toys everywhere. Then it came to him, why don’t we (meaning here in the US) have our own monster.

He then went on to say he did not mean like King Kong which he called “Cute”, and not Godzilla. He said that he is still in production on the film and is loving the dailies (unedited, raw film footage without sound), but he also said he did not have a name for the film, teasing the audience about naming it “Monsterous”.

A later article came out in the New York Post from an inside source who said that it had to do with an “alien attack”. Could this be the next War Of The Worlds?

I think I’m going to throw out my theory based on the info given by industry sources and say that the film, still under working titles, is a monster movie cut straight from the imagination of a man (Abrams) who once grew up watching reruns of 1950’s sci-fi horror films. You know, the ones that always start out with an alien crash or leak and a monster that either grows or comes out of the craft.

My guess is just like in those films he took his time coming up with his own monster through probably a series of sketches and animators. ably won’t look anything like what we’ve seen before, but then again he could decide to stick to something safe like variations of (hybrids or chimeras) lizards.

This does have a science fiction twist to it, but with terrifying horror like camera work. I think he is bringing back the fear and joy those films use to bring, so I say more power to him.

Whatever it is, one thing is for sure, you should she this at an Imax theater.

UPDATE:

We may have a name for this movie. The title Overnight has suddenly popped up within JJ Abrams circle and leaked out onto the net.